Patrick D. Powell, 42, of Gardner Avenue has been charged with murder in the May 15, 2011 shooting death of Robert Flagler, 69, who lived in the same multifamily building as Powell.

Powell's wife, Margaret Hunter Powell, briefly appeared in court this morning without the jury present and asserted her marital privilege not to testify against her husband.

"I don't feel comfortable," she said.

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor David Sharpe argued that Powell's wife should testify because she had already been separated from Powell for months at the time of the incident and had filed for divorce just two days ago.

But under questioning by Powell's attorney, Powell's wife said she still loves Powell deeply and that she didn't know she could choose not to testify until yesterday.

Judge Lisa Rose ruled that Powell's wife had a right to decline to testify to protect the sanctity of marriage, given that she was still legally married to Powell.

Megan Hunter, 20, Powell's stepdaughter, testified this morning. Under questioning by Sharpe, Hunter told the jury that she was with Powell in his apartment at around noon on the day Flagler was shot to death.

She said she was on the phone with her sister when Powell told her to get off the phone. After complying, she said she then called her mother and told her she was scared. She said Powell then grabbed her.

"He grabbed me, trying to get me off the phone," she testified. She said she later ran out of the building because "I was scared."

But when Powell's defense attorney questioned her, Hunter admitted that she did not know Powell to be violent and he did not hurt her while she was at the home.

"He didn't punch me or anything, he didn't hurt me," she said at one point.

In a confusing twist to the meaning of "grabbed," Powell's defense attorney asked if she interpreted Powell taking her arm to be his way of asking her to pray with him, and Hunter said that was correct.

When Powell's mother, Irene Powell, was called to testify, she seemed reluctant to answer Sharpe's questions. At first, she said she didn't recall giving a statement to homicide detectives on May 19, 2011.

But when presented with an audio tape of her statement with her signature on it and a transcribed copy of her statement, Powell's mother said she recognized what those were.

"It was a bad statement. I was excited," she said, later adding that "she was confused."

Later on, when the jury wasn't present in the courtroom, Powell's mother told Sharpe that "some of (the statement) is not correct. I was excited that day."

When he asked her what part of her statement was not correct, Powell's mother said the part about Powell choking her.

"He didn't choke me, I remember that," she said.

On May 15, 2011, Powell knocked on Flagler's apartment door and "almost immediately thereafter, shot him in the chest," authorities said at the time.

Flagler's wife, Leitha Flagler, 76, who was watching the trial today, said she didn't know of any motive Powell might've had for murdering her late husband.